By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast Order
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 12 -- For scam crypto currency OneCoin, Sebastian Greenwood who co-founded the company with Ruja Ignatova was sentenced to 20 years in prison by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Edgardo Ramos on September 12, 2023. Inner City Press was there and live tweeted, thread here
Inner City Press had sought the unsealing of Greenwood's 33 sentencing letters but with him opposing (citing a Mafia case) and the US Attorney's Office inappropriately taking no position, it was denied. Judge Ramos' order is here.
On October 10, Inner City Press filed Notice of Appeal of the sealing of all of Greenwood's letters.
On July 28, 2025, Inner City Press won: "Before: Parker, Park, and Nathan, Circuit Judges. Appellant Matthew Lee appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Ramos, J.) denying his motion to unseal and unredact Defendant-Appellee Karl Greenwood’s sentencing submission. On appeal, Lee argues that he enjoys a right of access to Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum and sentencing exhibits. We conclude that a First Amendment right of access attaches to Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum and sentencing exhibits and therefore requires the district court to make individualized findings to justify sealing those materials. Although the district court’s findings adequately justified the narrowly tailored redactions in Greenwood’s sentencing memorandum, the district court did not adequately justify its decision to seal Greenwood’s sentencing exhibits. Accordingly, we VACATE in part the order of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion." Opinion here.
On August 12 Greenwood's until now retained counsel wrote in to "request that the Court appoint the undersigned as temporary CJA counsel for the purpose of this submission and any additional briefing or litigation related to Lee’s desired access to Mr. Greenwood’s sentencing exhibits....Mr. Greenwood is in arrears to this firm, which was engaged to represent Mr. Greenwood with respect to his plea and on appeal to the Second Circuit. The Lee litigation regarding public access to his sentencing submission and exhibits has been an unpaid burden for Weddle Law that it has shouldered to date."
Near-immediate opposition was filed to devoting public funds to further pursue the unprecedented withholding in full of these sentencing letters, particularly without a CJA financial affidavit which Inner City Press has requested in advance be unsealed, as it won in US v. Avenatti and other cases.
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